It is often and rightly said that goalkeeping is one of the most under-appreciated jobs in the modern day game, wherein the goal scorers end up racking up all sorts of praise. The goalkeepers are pure loners, who stand between the sticks, away from the action, doing nothing but nothing at all itself. No matter how renowned the stopper is, this element of loneliness is always there in his career, no matter how many games he has played.
Petr Cech and David de Gea, two of the best goalkeepers in the game today and both have done the job of standing between the sticks, isolated from the action very well. But being one of the best goalkeepers in the world, there are times when they are the center of attention. And here we compare the Manchester United and Arsenal stoppers to each other.
De Gea, due to his reported move to Real Madrid and due to Louis van Gaal’s decision of not starting him has started just 4 games in the Premier League, with Sergio Romero having started the games he was excluded from. While Cech has started every single game for the Gunners, 8 in total.
De Gea, has kept less clean sheets than Cech because he’s started less amount of games, but even in terms of average, Cech exceeds De Gea average clean sheets by 0.25 to 0.50. This amount to an exact double because Cech has played 720 minutes, which an exact double of the 360 minutes that De Gea has played. De Gea has kept just one clean sheet, that too against Sunderland, while Cech has kept 4, which includes the one against United.
In terms of goals conceded, De Gea has conceded just 6, while Cech has conceded just 7, despite the fact that Cech has started double the amount of games as De Gea. The drubbing at Arsenal has actually piled on the amount of goals De Gea has conceded, otherwise, his tally would’ve respectable too.
On average, De Gea has made just 0.13 saves more than Cech, as he’s made 3 saves every game, as compared to Cech’s 2.87. The United defense has looked unorganized and looked especially so against Southampton and Arsenal. Despite Laurent Koscielny’s injury, that has hampered Arsenal’s defense, Cech has made a respectable amount of saves on an average.
In terms of saves per goal, Cech is miles ahead of De Gea and this stat hardly does take into consideration the amount of matches a player plays. Cech makes 3.83 saves per goal, while De Gea’s stat stands at just 2, thus far.
Cech’s ball distribution percentage( 65%) is slightly better than De Gea’s (60%), but the Spaniard’s ball distribution, which used to be a death knell for his goalkeeping earlier, has improved excellently over the past two seasons.
Cech has claimed 2.50 catches, as compared to De Gea’s 1.50, which is very good for an aging stopper such as him. But, De Gea has made a punch in every game on average, as compared to Cech’s 0.75, which again goes to show the agility that the Czech Republic International has despite having an aging body.
All in all, Cech has had a solid start to his Arsenal career, but De Gea’s best is yet to come, considering the fact that the 24-year-old has made just 4 appearances so far.